Cephalic Tentacle

[marcy]

How could a snail lose part of one of his cephalic tentacles? Is it something that regrows?, will the snail suffer without it? My snail somehow managed to lose half of one, I am a little worried about him.

[Darren Willis]

Hi Marcy

Mmmmm well my first question is , are there fish in the same tank as the snail? That is the usual reason for tenticle damage , fish usually nip them thinking they are worms.

Other reasons for damage (in my experiemce this is)

(*) Feeding scrums , a pile of snails feeding sometimes causes a tenticle or two to be accidently bitten .... Cana's are able to bite through a brig tenticle with one bite .... I've seen it.

(*) I've witnessed long tenticles get sucked into filters and that can sometimes cause damage. (In fact I have seen the odd head stuck in the inlet slots on a filter ... thats not pretty , specially if happens during the night and you don't find it for a few hours ... usually results in death unless found quickly)

(*) Birth defect , if your snail had full tenticles when you got him/her then obviously it isn't due to this.

Now the tenticle will grow back unless it's a birth defect but it usually is thinner than before , I wouldn't worry too much as it won't adversly effect your snail .... but if you have fish in the tank then it may be them you need to worrying about because they could well be the culprit.

Hope that helps you a bit.

Cheers

Daz

[marcy]

The only thing I can think of it being was one of my fish. I have Tetras, but they have not even bothered with him since I got him. Needless to say, I am thinking of just keeping him in another tank, don't want him harrased.

Marcy

[marcy]

My snail has lost half of his other cephalic tentacle(suspect - Cherub the Angel fish). And also part of one from his mouth, will this affect his ability to survive? I'm ready to give away the fish at this point because I have not bought another tank yet.

[SnailTrail]

I'm not sure how long it will take for the tentacles to re-grow. Snails need their tentacles to be able to feel their way around as they have very bad eyesight.

The fear is that your angel will either harass him into shell dwelling and might starve or literally pick at him until he becomes so weak and stressed he could die.

Do you have a breeding trap you could put your harassed snail into until you find another home for your angel or perhaps cycle a new tank for your snail?

Janet

[marcy]

I'm going to buy Scoot his own tank tomorrow. I have been dropping his food right in front of him when he has been moving around the tank, so he can find it easily, but I really feel sorry for him. Hopefully he'll survive if he's by himself, but then I think he'll need a girly-friend cuz he'll be lonely, lol.

Thanx, Marcy

[SnailTrail]

Read up on cycling the new tank as much as you can as nitrites are toxic to snails.

Hope to see some photos of your new set up soon. ;D

Janet